Do they block On Line Opinion in China, and if not, will I be in breach of Chinese law if anyone reads OLO there? This thought has been prompted by this quote sent to me from a business partner, and my non-business partner’s desire to go to China for the Olympic games.
China bans foreign investment in publishing, and news organizations
According to a newly issued government document jointly devised by five Ministries, foreign investors are now prohibited from
establishing or running news organizations, broadcasting stations, TV stations and film manufacturing companies, performing troupes, film imports, exports and distribution.
The document also forbids foreign investors from undertaking businesses such as book and magazine publishing, wholesale and imports. They can not enter into the publishing field in the name of book distribution, printing, advertising and culture facility reconstruction.
Meanwhile foreigners are allowed to build Chinese-foreign cooperative enterprises and Chinese-foreign joint ventures for package material printing, book and magazine distribution and artwork sales, however under the rules, the Chinese partner’s investment ratio should not be lower than 51 percent in these joint ventures and the Chinese side must be in control of the management of the venture.
© MMLC Group 2005
The Chinese might be able to control what is produced on their terroritory, but it is problematic for them to try to control what is not produced there, including Internet sites and satellite broadcasts.
Which puts me and Rupert Murdoch in the same quandary. Except that I wouldn’t change content to keep the Chinese happy. And that’s probably fine for me, because they’d never get to exercise their laws extraterratorially here, and I’m not sacrificing much of a profit opportunity in China.
Rupert might be missing a profit opportunity, but then he can put the whole empire in his wife’s name.
But what if I want to holiday there? Darling, we might have to compromise on the Commonwealth Games. You can still legally read OLO in Victoria.
In crazy ramblings please ignore tags:
But a terrorist attack is more likely in melbourne now than China, I say “Bring on the white feathers”.
Comment by Benno — September 14, 2005 @ 9:29 pm
Hey, thats not a registered domain!
Comment by Benno — September 14, 2005 @ 9:30 pm
I recently spent half a year living and working in China and I managed to read OLO quite a few times without any problems. Of course that may have changed in the few months since I returned to Oz.
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Comment by Emoney-exchange — September 18, 2005 @ 9:09 am
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Comment by Benno — September 18, 2005 @ 10:03 pm
Crabby, it’s just a fantasy of mine that we matter enough that they’d worry what we publish in China. I understand thought that the ABC has been blocked from time to time. You might want to comment on that.
Comment by Graham Young — September 22, 2005 @ 11:19 pm